I haven't watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since the Thanksgiving I actually spent in New York City visiting family ten years ago, so I missed this whole kerfluffle.
It's traditional for the parade to include a performance or two from current Broadway shows. This year's outing included a song from the new musical "The Prom" which opened just recently. I'm not sure exactly what the story is about (it apparently has to do with old Broadway stars coming back to a small town high school), but at least this particular song centers around a high school couple, who happen to be lesbians and ends with the two of them kissing.
Now, if this was a heterosexual couple, it could have well been "Bye Bye Birdie," "Grease" or even "Heathers," none of them particularly wholesome musicals when you really look at the story. But this was showing a gay couple and that's just not what conservative outlet ForAmerica (with its president, David Bozell) wanted with their breakfast. Won't someone think of the children???
Their innocence was broken by this? Histrionic, much?
The Twitterverse was understandably scornful of such handwringing.
I guess old David Bozell should be happy that he didn't see the feature of the Go-Go's jukebox musical, "Head Over Heels" pre-parade.
My LGBT daughter and I caught it in previews here in San Francisco, and it celebrates not only same sex relationships, cross-dressing, and body positivity but also features a transgender star (Peppermint from "RuPaul's Drag Race") in a specifically gender non-binary role. It THRILLED my kid to see that kind of representation and embracing that sexuality and gender for her generation run along a spectrum.
It's a brave new world that is leaving the Bozells of the world out in the cold.
